Lollapalooza organisers repond to Dev Hynes’ assault claims

Blood Orange man says that he and Samantha Urbani were hurt by security at Chicago event

Lollapalooza have offered a statement following Dev Hynes’ claim that he was assaulted by security at the festival on Friday (August 1).

As previously reported, Hynes was performing under his Blood Orange guise at the festival in Grant Park, Chicago, where he claims both he and Samantha Urbani, his bandmate and girlfriend, were assaulted.

In a series of tweets, Hynes said he was thrown to the ground by three security guards following Blood Orange’s mid-afternoon set at Chicago’s Grant Park, after Urbani was “grabbed”.

Since then Lollapalooza has shared a statement regarding the incident. The statement reads (via Pitchfork) “Late Friday night, we learned of an incident involving an artist and a security guard on site. Since then, we have been in contact with those involved and the authorities, as we work together to resolve the situation. As always, our top priority is to ensure the safety of everyone at the festival.”

In a further twist, Hynes claimed Lollaplooza were deleting references to the incident from their Twitter and Facebook sites. He then revealed that one of the security guards is counter-claiming that he was assaulted by Hynes. The singer wrote: “One of the security guards is claiming that I assaulted him, which is insanity. If you saw the incident, please get in touch.” He concluded: “Thanks for the support. We are both very shaken and I am pretty bruised up, but blessed to be alive in this world. Others aren’t as lucky.” Urbani added: “Thanks for the support guys, really. We’re shaken, upset, sad etc, but OK. We just want to keep working against violence and abuse of power. Speak up and take care.”